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I really cannot say this surprises me. I've lived in Florida (Orlando and now Tampa too) for all but the first 6 months of my nearly 24 years, and I've seen the consequences of "growth." What used to be an affordable place to live is no more, home prices have doubled in the last 5 years thanks to "investors" and people from even more expensive places coming down and happily paying the inflated real estate prices because it still seemed like a bargain to them.

I've got mixed feelings about this state, it's the middle of January and today in Tampa it was about 85 degrees and humid, there's nothing but uncontrolled sprawl (mile after mile of suburban hell strip malls and subdivisions) and the weather for 1/2 the year is god awful (unless you like mosquitoes, 110 degree daily heat indices, and daily afternoon downpours with deadly lightning). But in the past, the consolation was that this was an affordable place to live.

I guess we're going to see places like North Carolina (which is absorbing a lot of "Floridiots") experience the same thing, as people looking to escape the high prices and "growth" here wind up creating the same thing somewhere else!

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Actually, the truth is that a lot of home builders have priced themselves out of the market. A home a couple blocks from the beach in Melbourne was under $200K a couple years ago, then they shot up to around $375K. Now it's coming down to around the $320 mark.

Homes in Baldwin Park are plummeting in price right now, as are many neighborhoods in the downtown area. The high rise condos in Orlando are even lowering prices.

Too far, too fast.

It'll all work itself out and hopefully we'll lose some snowbirds and other immigrants to Florida in the process.

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Most likely this is a temporary trend, as Florida continues to have a strong draw. Most southerners have some degree of envy of Florida but it has grown into "California East" in many respects to real estate pricing, overcrowding and unbridled growth as some negatives of this and Sun and Fun lifestyle, scenery, and general allure as positives. California was the state everyone was leaving in the 80's, yet it gained record numbers, due to immigration and natural increase and again experienced the same in the early years of this decade. It's could be argued that Florida is overflowing into other parts of the Southeast just as the neighboring Western states have absorbed would-be and former Californians.

Living in the Blue Ridge foothills of North Georgia, I'm increasing aware of "half-backers" and the emerging "Floridiot" moniker for younger ex-Floridians. Some of it was inevitable due to rising real estate prices in Florida and increased crowding. Also, the South Atlantic states-North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia have rapidly caught up with Florida in terms of progressiveness, fueled by rapid growth of Charlotte, Atlanta, and Raleigh and other major cities as well as those states actively seeking retirees for the Golden Isles, Outer Banks, Grand Strand, and Blue Ridge regions to bolster economic development.

The sheer length of Florida, and the distance from the Midwest and Northeast is probably a consideration for the "Half-Backer" retiree, considering Atlanta is closer to Detroit and Chicago than it is Miami and the same for Raleigh in relation to Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other eastern cities. It becomes more feasible to have friends and family visit from back home and to visit them as well a return to four seasons without the extremities of northern winters. Also, the growing big cities have resulted in many amenities of medical care, culture and entertainment being more widely available in the neighboring Southern states. What was once considered hallmarks of Florida lifestyle have jumped across state lines to other Southern states just as the California "car culture" became the American "car culture."

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Also, the "exodus" varies by location. SW FL is still gaining new residents (albeit not at the pace we were 2 years ago). However, Miami would have actually lost population this year if it had not been for the immigration growth. Most of the larger cities (Miami, Orlando, Tampa) are being replaced by the mid-size cities (Ft. Myers, Sarasota, Port St. Lucie) as the new "hot markets" in Florida.

I know that North Carolina and Tennessee are popular with Floridians. I don't forsee that lasting long considering the lack of jobs. Housing is cheap but the increased demand will raise prices and the lack of jobs will make it a very difficult place to live for the working class. While the mountain areas are nice, they will never have the economy Florida has.

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Also, the "exodus" varies by location. SW FL is still gaining new residents (albeit not at the pace we were 2 years ago). However, Miami would have actually lost population this year if it had not been for the immigration growth. Most of the larger cities (Miami, Orlando, Tampa) are being replaced by the mid-size cities (Ft. Myers, Sarasota, Port St. Lucie) as the new "hot markets" in Florida.

I know that North Carolina and Tennessee are popular with Floridians. I don't forsee that lasting long considering the lack of jobs. Housing is cheap but the increased demand will raise prices and the lack of jobs will make it a very difficult place to live for the working class. While the mountain areas are nice, they will never have the economy Florida has.

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not from the latest 2006 census data. florida and the "big 4" cities in florida are still exploding in growth. thats not to say the mid size cities are not exploding as well. the whole state is going to overtake NY in population in the 2010 census.

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Just about all of the places that Florida expatriates are fleeing to have an abundance of jobs (Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh, etc.), so I'm not sure where this is coming from. Also, there was an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution recently that stated that metro Atlanta is getting a nice-sized chunk of Florida refugees.